Corporate Media Tunes Out Progressive Radio

by Tula Connell, Jun 21, 2007

We all know the radio talk shows overwhelmingly are dominated by Attila the Hun types—the kind that think the war in Iraq is going just dandy.

A new report released today by the Center for American Progress and Free Press puts hard data to the extremist right tilt on the nation’s radio waves. According to the report, The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio, 76 percent of the news/talk programming in the nation’s top 10 radio markets is “conservative” (read: far-right), while 24 percent is progressive. In four of those top 10 markets—Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas and Houston—the domination of conservative talk radio is between 96 and 100 percent.

There’s lots of such good data throughout the report, and everyone should take a look.

But one significant point needs to be highlighted. The report finds that locally owned stations are far less likely to air politically conservative talk shows than are stations owned by mega-media corporations. Quantitative analysis conducted by Free Press of all 10,506 licensed commercial radio stations reveals that stations owned by women, minorities or local owners are statistically less likely to air conservative hosts or shows. 

The same corporatization of America that has created small-business-eating monsters like Wal-Mart also means “we the public” hear what “they the corporations” want us to hear. As the report states: 

The disparities between conservative and progressive programming reflect the absence of localism in American radio markets. This shortfall results from the consolidation of ownership in radio stations and the corresponding dominance of syndicated programming operating in economies of scale that do not match the local needs of all communities. 

According to the report, this disparity is  

the result of multiple structural problems in the U.S. regulatory system, particularly the complete breakdown of the public trustee concept of broadcast, the elimination of clear public interest requirements for broadcasting, and the relaxation of ownership rules including the requirement of local participation in management. 

A Free Press report released earlier this month found that: 

Women and minorities have largely been shut out of radio ownership in this country, in part, because of media consolidation. The study concluded women and minorities own 6 and 7.7 percent respectively of the nation’s full power radio stations. 

According to Think Progress, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 has resulted in

a dramatic decline (34 percent) in the number of radio station owners, meaning a sharp increase in media ownership concentration. This trend has occurred because Congress eliminated restrictions on the total ownership of radio stations by any one media entity. Now, in the largest markets with 45 or more commercial radio stations, one entity may own or control up to eight commercial radio stations.

Further, increasing deregulation also has sharply limited local accountability over the public airwaves.

Radio stations are licensed by the government and are meant to operate in the public interest. Yet stations no longer have to inform the community of their obligations as a federal licensee, and the needs and interests of local communities are being ignored.

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